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Education for innovation : views (and lessons?) from a research organization. Stéphane Dalmas – Department of Transfer and Innovation. Introduction. Some views on education and innovation from a ¨raw material producer” for innovation Whose workforce is PhD
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Education for innovation : views (and lessons?) from a research organization Stéphane Dalmas – Department of Transfer and Innovation
Introduction Some views on education and innovation from a ¨raw material producer” for innovation Whose workforce is PhD A research institution : an interesting place at the crossroad of (higher end) education and innovation
Research institutions : innovation and education Play a triple role As provider of raw material for innovators Research is not innovation, invention is not innovation... Either implicitly, to the whole society Vast body of knowledge in publications Or explicitly, for “clients” Through contracts: technology transfer, research, studies...
Research institutions and education They are part of the education system PProducing PhD But they also hire the people that have spent the most time in the education system Consuming PhD To produce innovation components
INRIA French government funded research institution in ICST - “Digital sciences” Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique Under the dual auspices of the ministry in charge of research and industry Main missions : Scientific excellence (basic and applied research) Knowledge transfer The largest of its kind in Europe More than 3300 scientists More than 200 research teams
INRIA is interesting because... We are not an applied research organization Not focussing on the needs of industry In a field largely involved in innovation and with a short time scale Many initiatives around innovation Framework agreements Joint laboratories with SME IT-Translation : coaching and early stage funding of spin-off from public research .... And a track record : more than 100 start-up companies, some bought by Yahoo !, IBM, BO...
Our workforce PhD : clever, curious, creative... Team work is common Many joint publications Enjoying a large scientific freedom No individual goal for grants and contracts Multicultural PhD students, post-docs, visitors, researchers... Some researchers with an engineering background (top level engineering schools ; common in ICST) 1000 PhD hosted in our research teams
Who are the best at innovation ? As measured by technology transfer, research contracts, spin-off creations Nothing obvious in terms of background... The most effective are Notwithstanding the influence of the area The motivated ones... The ones that found the right person to talk with A “user”, an engineer, a business person (sales, marketing, funding...), another researcher...
Because From research ideas/products Some other stakeholders are needed to convert them to innovation In a way that we don't really understand... The vision has to be built incrementally And every case seems to be special : people and relationship are key Many results are generic and can be applied in many different markets Complicated and many are too advanced... The key point, besides finding the people. : being able to talk with them
From an education point of view Enable our researchers to talk the language of the people needed to realize the innovation potential of their research Translators do not really work... A real challenge Hard to know what could be useful... Business school (finance, marketing), some engineering, psychology, ... Entrepreneurship and innovation teachings are something else, probably No need to have a shallow understanding of the whole picture – and avoid being too unscientific...
Improving our understanding of innovation Research institutions such as INRIA are good places to get insights Measuring innovation Evaluation of our actions around innovation (including collaborative projects) Benchmarking with other research organizations Taking into account the differences between organizations and their people At a European level (KIC ICT-Labs) Ultimate goal to improve the performances of the organization and the performances of our people